Murdaugh Murders Podcast - MMP #29 - How Many People Will Go Down For This?

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

After Friday’s indictments, Alex Murdaugh now stands accused of stealing at least $8.4 million and faces 74 charges. If the latest indictments told us anything, it’s that Alex did not do this alone - but how many people will go down for this? And how bad will this get? In this episode, Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell walk you through every detail of Alex's newest indictments that appear to hint others are involved and may face indictments of their own soon. Attorney Justin Bamberg, who is representing at least 8 clients in this case, joins us in this episode. Justin explains how deep loyalty is in a place like Hampton, South Carolina — and how betrayed the people there feel as they reckon with the truth behind two of their most lofty businesses. ** In the last episode, it was said that Russell Laffitte was the former president of Palmetto State Bank. He is the former CEO. Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Please consider donating to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Justice For Stephen Go Fund Me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Premium Members ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠also get access to ad-free listening, searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lunasharkmedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ all in one place. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICK HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our LUNASHARK Merch 👕⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ What We're Buying... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertising is curated by the talented team at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AdLarge Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TrueSunlight.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/mandy_matney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/elizfarrell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Alec Murdoch. I need police and an ambulance immediately. Murdoch, Death in the Family Official Podcast, is here. I'm joining Patricia Arquette, Jason Clark, and the cast to uncover all things Murdoch. Family first. To unravel the story piece by piece was really surprising because you don't want to believe it. Murdoch, Death in the Family Official Podcast, Wednesdays. And stream Murdoch, Death in the Family on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Terms apply. I don't know how many more times Elyke Murdoch can get indicted in the next few months. But after this last round of charges, it seems like, as Eric Bland has said before on this podcast, there really is no bottom to Ehrlich or his co-conspirators. From his alleged scheme so far, we have learned that when you take a very powerful family of bankers and mix them with a very powerful family of prosecutors and personal injury lawyers who rule over a Southern Town unchecked for almost 100 years, the outcome is not just bad. It's dangerous. My name is Mandy Matney. I've been investigating the Murdoch family for almost three years now.

And this is the Murdoch Murdoch with David Moses and Liz Farrell. On Friday morning, we learned that the state grand jury handed down another 23 charges against Ehrlich Murdoch. As of Friday, Ehrlich now stands accused of stealing at least $8.4 million. And he faces a whopping 74 charges since he was first arrested in September. And that is a big deal. In the days and weeks leading up to Friday, multiple sources said that Elex alleged co-conspirators would be indicted alongside him. But on Thursday afternoon, we learned that the state grand jury had to cut its January session short because of two reasons. One was because of a winter storm in the F-State, which is in the Greenville, South Carolina region, and the other was because of

COVID. According to our sources, COVID-19 exposure and weather problems made it impossible for state grand jurors to be able to get through their cases this month. For some background, the state grand jury is held in the state capital city of Columbia, South Carolina. State grand jurors come from all over and typically hear cases in Columbia once a month. Also, state grand jurors are legally obligable. to keep grand jury matters confidential. We believe that some of those cases that the state grand jury didn't get to hear this month likely involved Russell Lafitte, who is the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank and Corey Fleming, Eleg's best friend who represented the Satterfield family.

He also represented Pamela Pinkney, the mother of Hakeem Pinkney, the deaf man who was paralyzed in a horrific accident in 2009 that we introduced you to in the last episode. Though neither Corey nor Russell's names appeared in the four indictments handed down on Friday, when you read between the lines, their presence is obvious. One of the indictments references a close friend of Murdoch and his alleged role in the schemes, while three of the indictments detail Palmetto State Banks alleged participation in Elyke Murdoch's crimes. We'll talk more about that in a minute. But first, we want to tell you about what these indictments collect

collectively confirm. As you know, we have long been told by our sources that Ellick's alleged victims are likely going to number in the hundreds, and that his alleged schemes have been going on from the very beginning. Prior to Friday, the oldest case that had been indicted was from 2015, the year Ehrlich set up his fake forge accounts at Bank of America. The new indictments confirm that Ehrlich allegedly began stealing from clients earlier than that. The oldest cases that are now on the public record are from 2011. Elick began practicing law in South Carolina in 1994 and he used to work for the law firm where Corey eventually became a partner. Will investigators be able to go back that far and trace his financial transactions? One thing that's important for former clients of ELEC to know right now is that the statute of limitations in South Carolina is three years, but three years after a person could reasonably be expected to know that they were wronged. If you think you've been a victim of Elek Murdoch or you want to find out whether you've been a victim, it's important that you speak to law enforcement and an attorney outside of the PMPED law firm.

Another thing that the indictments confirmed for us is that Palmetto State Bank played a much bigger role in ELEC's alleged games than they wanted us to think. Here is attorney Justin Bamberg, who is representing at least eight clients in this case. I want to make this extremely clear. Without Russell LaFeed and Palmetto State Bank, Alex Murdoch steals nobody's money at that point in time, right?

These conservatives, first, it should have been a family member. And if it wasn't a family member, it needed to be somebody who didn't have such a close personal relationship with Alec Murdoch to the point that you put Alec Murdoch above your fiduciary duty to the individual over which you had control of their money. The problem isn't just the personal relationship between Russell Lafitte and Alec Murdoch or Palmetto State Bank and PNPEV. That in and of itself isn't the problem, right? It's the problem of if you are so loyal to your friend or your business and associate that you're willing to sacrifice the person you owe the fiduciary duty to, you don't need to be involved. That's where the problems come in. And if Alec Murdoch is not able to convince the Pinkney family that Russell Lafitte should be conservator over not just one, not just two, but three of the people in that multimillion dollar settlement wreck. Without that, we're not here today.

Russell Lafitte is still president of the bank, but they did what they did. And Alec could not have done it without the bank, period. In October, lawyers for the bank filed their first response to the Satterfield family's lawsuit, and it did not age well. As a reminder, in the Satterfield case, Vice President Chad Wessendorf is accused of being paid $30,000 to act as a personal representative for Gloria Satterfield's estate. The Satterfield's attorneys say that Chad didn't live up to his responsibilities as a personal representative and also shouldn't have taken that much money to begin with.

In response to being named a defendant in the case, Palmetto State Bank's initial strategy was to bulk the accusation and deny culpability. The 24-page filing is filled with disgruntled remarks that mock and criticize the original complaint filed by Eric Bland on behalf of the Satterfield family. The filing denied that Westendorf acted as a representative of the bank and further alleged that the bank itself could actually be owed damages from Murdoch and Quirdoch and Fulming's firm, which was Moss Coon and Fleming and is now just Moss and Coon. An even bigger deal is that filing says things like we shouldn't be a defendant in this case

because it's not like we did X, Y, and Z, and I bet that they're going to regret putting that in writing. Because not only did the bank end up quickly settling in the Satterfield case, the new indictments show that X, Y, and Z is exactly what the bank is accused of doing before Ehrlich apparently moved his operations to Bank of America in 2015. So I want to repeat this because it's unbelievable. In defending itself in the Satterfield case, the bank decided the best course of action was not only to simply deny complaints made against them, but explain in great detail as to why they're not liable. And those reasons why, those actions that they say didn't happen in the Satterfield case

are the very same actions that happened in the Satterfield case. And in three of the four cases we're going to tell you about right now. They thought it was built on a solid foundation. You know, maybe. You know, again, it's a lot of people on that board. You know, and we've yet to find out everybody who knew what and when they knew or what they knew. But obviously, people had either not been checking behind Russell Lafitte or had been checking and either took his word for whatever he was saying or just turned. the other way, you know, and it seems to be a lot of turning the other way here.

At some point, the question that has to be asked is, if you knew something and you turn the other way, when does that become criminal? Okay, so what Justin is saying here really is the big question. How many people knew and did nothing? How many people will go down for that? And if people holding positions of power at the bank really had no idea, should they even be working at a bank at all? But we're talking about a bank, okay?

And we're not talking about $5 or $10 or Benjamin Franklin. We're talking about millions of dollars fraudulently taken from the hands of injured and deceased people with a bank tied to it when their job is to deal in money. If it was millions of dollars getting taken from a car wash, number one, you'd ask what kind of soap they're using. It's all cash judgment. We're talking about a bank with investors who invest hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.

We're talking about shareholders. It's a bank. And for over 10 years, all of this fraudulent activity was going on. And it's so difficult to wrap your mind around this concept that. that no one knew anything. Like, Hallig knew and Russell Lafitte knew and nobody else knew. Well, then nobody was doing their job for 10 years and they need to take all their paychecks and pay the bank back

so they have more money to pay these people whose money was stolen. And we'll be right back. Now, Liz and I are going to walk you through all four of the indictments and what they mean. Indictment number one, Hakeem Pinckney. The Pinkney family went to Alec Murdoch for help after a catastrophic car crash in 2009 left Hakeem, a 19-year-old deaf man, a quadriplegic, and also badly injured his mother who was driving the car when a tire came untreaded.

In December 2011, Ehrlich is accused of having a check for $309,581, written out of Hakeem's estate and made out to Palmetto State Bank. He allegedly used that money to purchase money orders for an unnamed family member and payable to other conservatorship accounts from which Ehrlich had previously, borrowed money. He also allegedly used the money to get cash for himself and a, quote, different family member. The indictment indicates that Ehrlich also used the money to pay down a personal business loan. Elick is also accused of convincing Hakeem's mother, Miss Pamela, to retain a lawyer who was a, quote, close friend of Murdoch. In May 2017, when the Pinkney family thought

the case had been completely resolved and all money dispersed, Elic allegedly had his unnamed friend the attorney, make out a settlement disbursement check for $89,133.44 from Hakeem's estate to PMPED. He is then accused of having a check written from PMPED's client trust fund for that same amount, which he allegedly deposited into his fake forge account at Bank of America. He allegedly converted some of the money to cash and used the rest to pay bank fees and write checks to himself and unnamed associates. The Pankney case gives us some insight into how Ehrlich was a allegedly operating before opening his forge accounts in 2015. In talking with lawyers and law enforcement officers,

a few have used variations of the saying, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered, in describing ELEC's metamorphosis as an alleged criminal. By the time he had opened the forge accounts, his alleged enterprise was in full swing, and likely would have stayed that way had his son not crashed their boat into a bridge in 2019. Something else we're starting to see with these indictments

is that it appears Ehrlich was robbing Peter to pay Paul, and taking loans out for himself from clients' conservatorship accounts. Remember, according to the Public Index, Russell Lafitte, the CEO of Palmetto State Bank who got fired a few weeks ago, served as a personal representative to a number of ELEC's clients. Also, remember, a conservatorship account is money that is meant to go toward supporting a person who cannot otherwise take care of themselves. You're probably familiar with the term because it's been so prevalent in the media

as a result of the Britney Spears case. So basically, it looks like ELEC was able to take. loans out on money that belonged to his client but that wasn't necessarily authorized by the client because Russell Lefeet served as a conservator and then personal representative in the Hekeem Pinkney case and because this was his family's bank he had direct access to Hakeem's money. Indictment number two, Natarcia Thomas. Around the same time that Ehrlich began allegedly stealing from Hakeem's estate he started allegedly stealing

from Hakeem's cousin's account too. Natasha Thomas is Hakeem's cousin's She was in the car at the time of the horrific crash that changed their lives forever in 2009. Along with Hakeem, Elyke Murdoch also represented Natarsha in the lawsuit against the tire company in 2010. In December 2011, just two months after Hakeem suffered an unexpected death apparently due to an unplugged ventilator, Eleg allegedly had a check written out to the firm's client trust account for $325,000, with the description settlement proceeds for Natasha Thomas. Eleg allegedly had that check made out to Palmetto State Bank and allegedly used it to buy a money order payable to a family member. Yes, apparently he bought a $325,000 money order and gave it to someone in his family.

We don't know who that person is, but we are going to try our best to find out. We'll talk about money orders in a bit because guess what? ELEC was not done with Natarsha's account. In August 2012, Ehrlich allegedly did the same thing except for this time for $25,000. He had the check made out to Palmetto State Bank and used the money as cash for himself to buy money orders that were also payable to Palmetto State Bank. These indictments are the first time we're seeing that ELEC was allegedly depositing the settlement money and converting it to money orders. To learn more about why ELEC might have been doing this and more importantly how he was able to do it.

We talked to the former private investigator. Well versed in financial crimes, she told us that the banks are required to have red flag systems that would alert them to unusual transactions such as a six-figure money order or basically any money order in amounts over $10,000. She said these alert systems also pick up on the number of transactions a customer is making and whether that customer is making several transactions just under the trigger point of $10,000. How could a customer bypass those red flag alerts? Being friends with the family that owns the bank obviously doesn't hurt.

As to why ELEC was doing this, one very simple benefit to stealing money and laundering it through a friend's bank is tax evasion. And we keep wondering when we'll see the IRS weigh in on ELEC's alleged transactions. So back to what I was telling y'all earlier about the October 2021 filing in the Satterfield case. In the filing, the bank maintained that it was not liable for what happened because of the following reasons. Pallmetto State Bank did not receive any fee or compensation related to the administration of the estate, nor was it paid any money from the settlements that were allegedly obtained because it was not involved and rendered no services. Palmetto State Bank did not open nor hold any account for the estate.

Palmetto State Bank did not administer or disperse any of the settlement funds discussed in the complaint, nor were the settlement checks deposited in any account with Palmetto State Bank. Palmetto State Bank neither cashed nor deposited any of the Moss Coon and Fleming checks from the Moss Coon and Fleming Trust. Palmetto State Bank did not owe a fiduciary duty or any other duty to the Satterfields because Palmetto State Bank never acted as the personal representative, nor was Chad Westendorf acting for defendant in serving individually as the personal representative. Palmetto State Bank's conduct was not the actual cause of any losses, damages, or injuries allegedly suffered by the plaintiffs. Any damages to plaintiffs were caused by unforeseeable, independent, intervening, and or superseding acts of third persons beyond the control and unrelated

to any actions or conduct of Palmetto State Bank. So we're not lawyers, obviously, but we don't think that. they're going to be able to make those same claims with the latest cases that have come to light, at least not with a straight face. You know, Palmetto State Bank has foreclosed on people's property before, you know. So obviously they know how to count money and determine how much money they're due. They don't know how to keep up with how much money other people are due or Russell the feet. Doesn't know how to keep up with how much money the subject of his conservatorship are due.

You know, something in the milk is not clean. in old country saying something in the milk ain't clean here. So I asked Justin what he thought of Friday's indictments as they pertained to his clients, the Pinkney family. For starters, when the indictments came out, we were pleased to the extent that Alec Murdoch was criminally charged for taking advantage of and stealing from the Pinkney family.

That was very encouraging. And, you know, like I say, as someone who believes injustice and believes in the system, that is an indication that the system is working, you know, because it would have been very easy for the South Carolina Attorney General's Office who would already charge him with, you know, however many counts, to just say, all right, if we give him a year on each one, he's going to die in prison, so we're going to stop.

That would have been an easy call to make, and they're not doing that. And I do tip my hat to the attorney team and staff who are working on this thing. You know, we were hoping, based on the information that we have, You know, that I think Russell Lafitte has some explaining to do. You know, it's one of those things where, man, you were in charge of his money, bro. Like, it wasn't a situation where Alec was just stealing out of the trust account like you saw with some of the forged deposits, right? Where there's no middleman. And these, Mr. Lafitte was in charge of their money, okay?

You got something explaining to do. And, you know, if you were innocent and you, you. didn't know what was going on, I would hope that you would have already been a person who would have talked to law enforcement and told them everything you knew and giving up all your paperwork, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right? But if that was the case, you should have done that back when he got hemmed up on Satterfield. People never want to talk until the hot iron starts getting close to the back of their ass. Then they'd be wanting to talk, okay? You know, and that does not, that's not an indication of innocence, in my opinion. That's an indication. That's an indication.

of, man, I'm about to get hit by that hot iron, so let me try to say something to see if they'll pull it away from me. You know what I mean? And I just think that based on everything, we have substantial breaches of fiduciary duty. Obviously, Ms. Pinkney, when Mr. Lafitte was suggested as conservator, and Alex explained whatever he explained, she trusted Mr. Lafitte with her children. The kids trusted him with their money, you know, Malik Williams. They trust him. did Russell Lafitte with their money, and then he went and loaned it to Alec Murdoch, who wasn't even working on the case. You see what I'm saying?

So if we talk about breach of trust, I mean, that's a breach of trust to me. I trust you to be conservator over my money, and my lawyer says that you should do it, and then you go and loan all of my money to your buddy Alex Murdoch, and in return, I get $100 in interest? No, sir. No, put my money in Apple stock. that you use to build your wealth and buy your homes and drive your nice cars and take your family on the beautiful vacation. That's where you should be putting my money, not in Alex

Murdoch's pocket, so he can float 40 grand over the course of a month and do whatever he was doing. That is a breach of trust, in my opinion. But I ain't the prosecutor, I ain't the jury, I'm the lawyer, and we're going to see what happens. Indictment number three, Arthur Badger. The first thing you should know about the Arthur Badger indictment is that it is 17 pages long. Arthur Badger's wife was killed by a UPS truck in 2011. And over the course of 16 months, Ehrlich is accused of stealing from Arthur 14 times for a total of $1.325 million. The alleged thefts occurred between February 2013 and June 2014 and started with a whopper of a check for $38,000.

that was made out to Palmetto State Bank and taken from PMPED's client trust account. ELEC apparently used that money to buy a money order payable to a business associate. After that, he is accused of stealing $75,000 from Badger and having that check made out to Palmetto State Bank as well. He then allegedly used that money to buy a money order payable to a family member. He's then accused of stealing nearly $152,000 using the same method and again making the checkout to Palmetto State Bank. The money was deposited into a conservator's account for a different person from which Alec had been allowed to borrow money before.

Then this is where it gets a little weird. The rest of the alleged thefts are for repeated amounts. Four times he allegedly stole $50,684.75. Four times he allegedly stole $101,369 and $49. And another three times he allegedly stole $33,789. And $83 cents. Some of that money. money was deposited into a conservatorship account for another person.

Some was converted into money orders payable to family members. Some was used to pay personal debts. Some was wired to a company. Some was converted to cash. Some was used to pay a Bank of America credit card. And some was used to pay an auto dealer. I was talking to a source connected to the case about why he thought Ehrlich allegedly stole the money in these repeated exact amounts.

He told me that one reason might have been so that if he were caught stealing, he could claim it wasn't stealing, but rather an inadvertent duplication. of checks. I should also mention Russell Lafitte, he served as the personal representative of Badger's wife's estate. Indictment number four, Dion J. Martin. The Dionne Martin case might sound familiar to some of you. In November, Elic was indicted in the Martin case and was charged with two counts of breach of trust and two counts of computer crimes. On Friday, a new indictment was handed down that replaces the November indictment and adds another. breach of trust charge. As a refresher, Ehrlich was accused of taking $338,000 from Deion in October 2015.

The money was supposed to be invested on Deion's behalf, but never was. A year later, Ehrlich allegedly took another $45,000 from Deon's settlement money. Both times, Elyke deposited the money into his forge account at Bank of America and used the money for his personal expenses. However, this new indictment add some new information about the Dion Martin case. Apparently in August of 2015, Elyke told Deon that he had gotten him $500,000 in settlement funds and they were being sent to Forge Consulting LLC, a legitimate company that would establish an annuity account on Deon's behalf. Ehrlich then allegedly kept a $200,000 fee for getting that $500,000. However, no such settlement was ever recovered. According to the indictment, quote, Murdoch knowingly and dishonestly asserted the recovery of phantom funds for the

purpose of artificially inflating the fee he could retain. So not only is Elyke accused of stealing client's settlement money, he was allegedly lying about the amount of the settlement so he could take more money from the clients. Multiple sources have told us that two of the next frontiers in the investigation are going to be cost inflation and predatory lending. And we'll be right back. To summarize everything so far, Elyke Murdoch is a person of interest in the murders of his wife and son. He has been accused of spearheading a scheme to defraud Gloria Satterfield's family of $4.3 million. He appears to have come up with some sort of workaround in moving his assets by quickly confessing judgment to debts he allegedly owes his brother and one of his law partners.

He is charged with lying to police about being shot on the side of the road when he was instead, so he says, trying to fake his own murder to defraud an insurance company out of $10 million. He is charged with forging names on documents in order to allegedly steal client money. He is accused of taking loans from clients' conservatorship's accounts. He is accused of using Eddie Smith to liquidate more than $3 million and allegedly stolen money into cash. He is charged with 19 computer crimes and 11 counts of money laundering. He is accused of lying to clients about how much money he had gotten them and where the money was going. He allegedly failed to invest money on behalf of clients who really needed it. He is accused of pretending to not charge a client his fee because he's not.

being a nice guy, all the while stealing most of his client's settlement. This isn't even the worst of it. For years, Elyke Murdoch readily accepted praise and gratitude from the people he was supposed to be helping. These are the same people whose lives he was secretly destroying, from the same community that now has to make sense of this mass betrayal. We have two more things we want to talk to you about. One is the pattern that keeps emerging out of these indictments, and two is the devastating effect these revelations are having on this close-knit community where loyalty means everything. In the newest indictments, all four alleged victims are African-American, and all four were receiving money because they needed it. I don't believe in coincidence. I think that Alec Murdoch strategically peop. picked victims. I think that one of the categories of what maybe put you in the victim category

would be maybe your education level. It would be your race. It would be your trust level. I think those are the things that maybe he looked at paired with, of course, value, case value. You know, everybody that he stole money from had fairly large settlements, large settlement, yielded large check amounts, and it left enough money for him to steal without actually tipping his hand to the actual client. Because, you know, like I've said before, for a lot of the victims, Alec gave them enough money for them to drop to their knees and say, thank you, Jesus, and then he took the rest. You had victims who, I think, happened to be minorities, who just had a personal relationship with him to the point that,

They would trust and believe anything he said, and he definitely took advantage of that. But I think, you know, when you look at Satterfield, again, that was a close personal trust. It was a personal relationship. But a lot of these clients, the Piny family, for example, they didn't know who Alex Murdoch was. He was recommended to them, and he picked his targets. And I think, like all predators do, predators just don't run around in the wild and pick off whatever comes in front of them. they look for a certain thing. And when you look at the character traits,

when you look at the racial makeup, when you look at the socioeconomic status, when you look at the physical disability of victims, you cannot help but see a trend in the types of people that Alec wanted to take advantage of. And again, we've yet to see anybody pop up as a victim. He wasn't taking advantage of lawyers. He wasn't taking advantage of doctors who got in car wrecks.

He wasn't taking advantage of, you know, accountants or tax professionals who got maimed in an accident. He was taking advantage of regular, hardworking people who he thought wouldn't be sophisticated enough. And Mandy, I think that's a very important point to clarify here, right? The victims, you're not, you're not stupid. You're not dumb. you're not easily fooled because you became a victim of Alec Murdoch you know in his mind he knew or found out certain things about you that he felt that he could take advantage of and it started with the trust that these people

put in him and then I think he did look at other aspects to them where they live what kind of home they have what's their education level like do they have physical disability. I think he did consider all of that because there are too many coincidences for it just to have been happy to have. The predatory behavior we're seeing would be disgusting under normal circumstances, but when you factor in the generational power that both the Murdox and the Lafitte's had in Hampton County, it becomes something else altogether. How convenient is it that a lawyer with an apparent addiction to stealing money in complicated financial transactions just so happens to have a

have a very deep rooted relationship with the town's banking family. For starters, let's hit the nail on the head here. When you live in rural South Carolina, small towns, a lot of farmland and space, small schools, everything, where you buy your groceries, where you do your gas fill-ups, where you get your hair cut, and what law firm you walk into, what bank you use is based on trust and relationships. You know, if you live in a big city, if you're in Charleston, if you're in Columbia or Charlotte or wherever, nobody in Atlanta picks a bank based on a special relationship with the people who run that bank. Nobody does this. Too many options.

You know, where we live, we don't have many options. So you go with what's familiar, you go with what's established, and you go with what's familiar. And when it comes to these banks, we're talking about areas that have a higher than average level of poverty, right? They have a higher than average level of difficulty getting employed. You know, people's credit might be lower because of the lack of opportunity. The education level maybe stops at high school, if you're lucky, two-year degrees for most people. So when it comes to banking, people rely on. on these banks, these smaller banks, these state charter banks, these federal credit union,

because the big banks, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Bank of America, Home to Forge. They'll bank with Alec Murdoch, they won't bank with everybody. But the local banks will. When you can't qualify for a mortgage, you know, if you look, I believe at present, Palmetto State Bank has almost $200 million in outstanding mortgages. Not all of that are the Uber wealthy. A lot of that is, for example, the town of Sheldon, they needed a pumper truck, and they put out bids, but because they're so small and because of what they can afford, Palmetto State Bank can do it. Maybe one of the big national ones wouldn't. Maybe the town of Sheldon at 5,000 people or less doesn't have the things that would make a large national bank comfortable in terms of loaning out money.

But Palmetto State Bank will go and loan out the money, you know, so it is a lot different in these small areas. With that trust comes great responsibility. And because people in Hampton value loyalty so much, the betrayal their feeling from Russell Lafitte and Palmetto State Bank just cuts deeper than it would if it were a corporate business in a big city. The loyalty runs so deep, you know, so if you got a bank, you know, yeah, you could go to Bank of America and they got the dope apps on your cell phone where everything's all convenient, you know, you can order checks online and the website is all fancy. Yeah, you could do that, but nah, you and Hampton, I'm a rock with my local bank, you know, they employ local people. They help take care of us locally. And, hey, I remember when they sponsored, which is really crazy. Mandy. Palmetto State Bank actually sponsored the Hampton football player of the week, and it was the son of one of my clients who had their money stolen.

The circles in Hampton are small, and when those circles of trust are broken, everything falls apart. You know, the Lafitte family without loyalty in Hampton, their bank never gets started in 1907. Never. It doesn't matter how powerful you are, how long. well like you are. If your local community doesn't rock with you, you're never going to build an empire. You know, I think that's why it's so crushing for so many people, whether it be you talk about Alec, you know, whether you talk about P&PED, not catching the fraud that was going on, whether

you talk about Russell Lafitte and his role or the bank in its failures. Like, people expect you to have their back because it's not just their support that help build your empires. It's their suffering. When their mama dies, that's whose case you settle. When their son becomes a quadriplegic, that's whose case you take and you put multiple million of dollars annually into Palmetto State Bank because you're making fee money off of local people's pain and suffering. So it's really deep if you think about it.

And I think that's why so many people are upset and bothered and hurt by what happened, including people who didn't have their money taken. Like, they're just hurt because their communities hurt. And a lot of us understand that. As Justin said, at the end of the day, Russell Lafitte owes the people of Hampton County. I just can't for the life of me understand how an individual like Russell Lafitte, I believe a fifth or sixth generation in that bank, could forget that he owes them folks in Hampton. Like, how could he forget, when he looks at the life that he has?

And when you stop and extract the tiny pieces of this story, like the fact that Russell took a $60,000 conservator fee from the Pinkney family during a time when they needed it the most, it feels worse than betrayal and greed. It feels evil. And meanwhile, Russell Lafitte, who's already making well into six figures a year, who owns 9% of that bank,

with the bank being valued at $700 million, y'all could do the math, and he will go and allow Alex in himself to finagle and unjustly take $60,000 from a dead person for what, probably 25 minutes worth of actual work, with most of that 25 minutes being, when we take this money. Most of the people,

majority of the people living in the county that is home to that bank have to work two years to make $60,000. What makes Russell Lafitte think that his name or whatever warrants him taking 60 grand from somebody, especially when you know that they got to pay for a funeral and that they've got medical bills in the millions of dollars and stuff like that? What were they thinking?

how did the bank not catch it? And we'll be right back. If the indictments told us one story, it would be that Ehrlich did not act alone in this. I'm just sitting here thinking, though, and really, if you think about it, Alec Murdoch has been getting thrown under the bus since before, like, Omicron strain was over here.

The justice bus is already on him and, like, is actually moving now. They need to quit trying to throw him under the bus, and they better find somebody else to snitch on or tell on or, you know, come forth with some information because this whole Alec, Alec, Alec, Alec thing got played out as soon as we found out this was going on for over a decade. The truth is that the heat is turning up on Alex co-conspirators. And no one who helped Ehrlich with this despicable scheme is safe from the long arm of the law. If I was them based on what I saw in the indictments and what I've seen in the paperwork, I would definitely look behind me before I sat down to make sure that I don't sit on the hot iron.

But I think it's all the makings are there, in my opinion. And through all of this, part of the thing, though, Mandy, what everybody wants is everybody, you know, victims, the public. Everybody wants to know what was going on. And my question is at what point, how many indictments in do we have to get before, the 100% truth comes out. You know, all we've seen today is everybody trying to blame Alex and make him fall God like he could do this by himself. He's Alec Murdoch.

He's a Murdoch, but he ain't Superman. You know what I'm saying? So there were other things in play here. There were other doors that were left open for Alex to walk through. And how many indictments do we have to see before anybody who knows more information just comes forward and tells? I mean, it's not snitching. Not in my opinion.

We talk about people who deserve to know these answers. Do the right thing. Like, that's just the standard in life, not the exception. You know, doing the right thing shouldn't be contingent on the hot iron getting close to your area. You know, we're expected to hold ourselves to a certain standard in life. Whether you're at the top or whether you're at the bottom, the societal, quote, unquote, bottom. The same standards apply to all of us. It just seems like to save face or to keep keep themselves out of any potential of getting in trouble,

everybody wants to just throw Alec Murdoch under the bus. He already under the bus. The bus's been on top of Alex. Sooner or later, the Justice Mobile is going to just mush Alec Murdoch. And then somebody else is going to be under it. The question is who. And the question is when. You know, but I feel like it's coming.

And everything that I've seen, like I say, is not just disgusting. I think it is, it seems there's a lot of, you know, moral implications here and a lot of societal and systemic implications here. And we can only hope that at the end of the day, as long as Alec Murdoch is still alive, he still has an opportunity to do the right thing. As long as people are still tied to PMPED, there's an opportunity for PNPED to do the right thing. as long as Palmetto State Bank exists and they have a board in charge of them, they still have an opportunity to do the right thing.

And you can only hope, you know, in the goodness of the world, that people will do the right thing. If people don't, there are folks like you and Eric and me and Mark Tendale and, you know, the South Carolina Attorney General's office and the public and most importantly, I think, are the people in Hampton County, they'll make you. Tuesday afternoon, while we were finishing up the podcast, I received an email from Megan Pat Quinn, Vice President of Poston Communications. Poston is an Orlando-based public relations firm that specializes

in crisis communication. Turns out, Palmetto State Bank hired them to manage their image. In the past two days, we've heard from sources that Palmetto State Bank is an extreme cleanup mode and is desperately working not to lose their federal charter. The feeling that we're getting, is that the bank wanted to pay people back and move on as fast as they can. Even though we had finished recording this episode, I told Megan that she could send us a statement. I asked her to tell us about the bank's position on Russell the Feet's alleged involvement in the theft of almost $2.3 million. I also asked her what the bank is doing to make this right for victims.

Here is the statement Megan provided on behalf of G. Trendholm Walker, the bank's attorney. Pumetal State Bank did not benefit from and did not receive fees from the transactions referenced in the most recent indictment of Alec Murdoch. It also did not benefit from or receive fees from the transactions that involved the Pinkney's settlement funds. When information about the transactions Alec Murdoch orchestrated came to light, the bank's board of directors took immediate action to begin an investigation and simultaneously severed the employment of former CEO Russell Lafitte. the bank and its board of directors remain committed to determining what exactly occurred, and while the bank has defenses to the claims that have been asserted, it intends to do the right thing and accomplish full restitution for those affected.

When I asked Megan whether we could expect that the victims who trusted Russell Lafitte to protect their money, money that was ultimately stolen, would be fully compensated by Palmetto State Bank, she responded the Palmetto State Bank, quote, will make every effort to accomplish full restitution for those whose settlement money was diverted to others in transactions processed at the bank, end quote. So the bank wants you to know that they didn't benefit from Russell's alleged thefts because they didn't make any money off of it. And they want you to know that they have defenses to any notion that they're responsible. Also, how much money do you think that they're spending to get somebody to turn the words,

stealing money into settlement money that was diverted to others. And how much of that money would be better off being spent on paying back every person who had their money stolen? Here's where I have a problem. The bank seems to be trying to separate itself from Russell Lefeet as if he were some rogue individual and not the literal leader of their institution. And most members on the board are Russell's family members, by the way. And our real problem with this is the bank saying, it wants to make things right, but from what we understand, they're pushing back and trying to find

ways to bend and twist reality in their favor. The bottom line is this never should have happened. The bank is in a position of trust, and Russell Lafitte, if he did these things, was 100% synonymous with the bank, and the bank was 100% synonymous with Russell Lafitte. It is so infuriating. to see the spin, but it's not going to keep us from bringing the truth to light so that the victims, most of whom have not been publicly identified yet, get what they should have gotten in the first place. Stay tuned. And before we end this podcast, I want to say thank you to those who have supported our mission to expose the truth wherever it leads. Your positive comments on social media or encouraging emails are truly appreciated.

99% of the comments we received are from good-natured people who believe in what we are doing. We are holding agencies accountable and changing a system that has applied unequal justice for far too long. Also, I'd like to take a moment and say thank you to the ABC News and 2020 crew. I turned down a lot of projects because they didn't feel right, or at times they felt downright wrong. But the 2020 team made me feel like they would do the story in its many. victims justice and they did don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram or follow Mandy on Twitter Mandy works tirelessly to expose the truth wherever it leads I and countless others believe she's the best in the business and pursuing

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